Saturday, August 15, 2015

Myanmar’s influential Speaker Thura Shwe Mann has been removed from
the leadership of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party
(USDP) in a dramatic move which saw armed police swooping on the
headquarters of the party in Naypyitaw late on Wednesday night and
sealing off the premises.
Thura Shwe Mann’s son was quoted by news agencies as saying there were “guards” at his father’s house.
Separately, the party’s secretary general Maung Maung Thein told
Reuters on the phone that he had been told there was no need for him “to
come to the office any more.”
A well placed source in Myanmar told The Straits Times: “This is an
internal party coup. Thura Shwe Mann remains Speaker of Parliament but
no longer leader of the party.”
It could not be confirmed that Thura Shwe Mann, 68, an ambitious
former senior general who had said he wanted to be President, would stay
on as Speaker. But his removal from the party leadership indicates he
would be out of the running for the Presidency.
In Myanmar’s system, the President is elected by sitting members of parliament.
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was ruled out because of a clause
in the constitution which bars anyone with foreign family members from
the post. Her two sons are UK citizens. Thus even if her party, the
National League for Democracy (NLD), emerges as the strongest from the
Nov 8 election, she would not be eligible to be President and would have
to back someone else for the post - potentially even from outside the
party.
Political pundits had pointed to Thura Shwe Mann as a possibility,
given that the two had apparently evolved a close working relationship.
He had made no secret of his ambition to be President.
But the powerful military which still ultimately calls the shots in
Myanmar, directly controlling 25 per cent of parliament seats as well as
three key ministries, was unhappy that the Speaker allowed a vote in
parliament in June that could have rolled back the military’s power to
the advantage of Ms Suu Kyi. The army used its reserved bloc to defeat
the proposal.
The deadline for nomination of candidates for the Nov 8 election is
Friday, Aug 14 – and the latest development sharply raises the political
temperature.
The internal coup also came amid reports of squabbles among the leadership over its candidate list.
The removal of Thura Shwe Mann may leave incumbent President Thein Sein in a stronger position.
The 70-year-old President is not contesting the election, and has not
explicitly said he wants to be in office for a second term.
But Myanmar’s system does not rule him out of the Presidency, and in
recent interviews, he has said he is open to the idea if asked.
Speaking to the BBC’s Myanmar language service on Thursday morning as
rumours flew in Yangon, Minister of Information and spokesman for the
President Mr Yeh Htut said Thura Shwe Mann had been temporary chairman
of the party, but President Thein Sein was the “permanent” chairman.